What if we could erase our own memories? This scenario has largely remained within the realm of science fiction (consider films like Total Recall and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). A new article in the Journal of Medical Ethics takes it as a serious possibility, and offers a novel legal perspective on the ethics of memory alteration.

The debate over neuroscience in the courtroom continues. The latest word the discussion comes from Nita Farahany - a member of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.

The landmark Baby M case -- a messy affair in which a surrogate refused to give away her parental rights to the child she carried -- swung an international spotlight on surrogate mothers' rights in New Jersey.

An Israeli Health Ministry committee has made some radical recommendations about fertility and birth policies last week, including allowing gay men to use a surrogate mother to conceive a child.

A group of Hawaii doctors is offering to write prescriptions for terminally ill patients in order to test whether physician-assisted suicide is permitted under state law, American Medical News reports.

A recent study published by the Centre for Social Research in India claims that women’s rights in India’s surrogacy capital, Anand in Gujarat are being violated.

A Tel Aviv family court set a legal precedent this week when it ruled that a woman whose eggs were used in a surrogate birth is the child’s legal mother. Until now, legal ambiguities forced women who used gestational surrogates to adopt their own children.

The US Supreme Court will hear a case about whether children conceived through IVF after the death of a parent are eligible for Social Security survivor benefits.

The European Court of Human Rights has upheld an Austrian ban on sperm and ova donations. By a vote of 13 to 4, the Court’s Grand Chamber declared that the ban did not violate the European Convention on Human Rights.